PPAP has more than 65 million YouTube views and was the first Japanese song to get into the U.S. Billboard top 100 singles in 26 years. Guinness World Records recognized it Friday as the shortest song to make the top 100.

It has also spawned 40,000 lip-synching copies uploaded to the internet.

Pikotaro said it feels great to be imitated, and that those from India are his favourite so far. He discouraged imitators from using real fruit, though, deeming it wasteful.

“There’s actually a theme when I’m singing,” he said, ticking off world peace and love of family and friends.

“And then, to prove the existence of dark matter,” he added, to laughs.

“I feel all these themes are well understood by the people who imitate me.”

He said he came up with the song at the house of his producer, Daimao Kosaka, which is actually his stage name as a comedian. With the tune playing, he picked up a pen to begin writing, and thought about Kosaka, who comes from apple country. An open can of pineapples was sitting on the table, and “pen-pineapple-apple-pen” was born.

Asked whether Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has called him since his success, he responded that he doesn’t answer numbers he does not recognize on his phone, but would check his messages later to see.

He also teased the topic of his next release: “The hint is, citrus fruits.”